Burda Media buys Lycos IQ
The German media group Burda is taking over the knowledge platform Lycos IQ. The company is thus jumping on a bandwagon that Holtzbrinck and Prosieben Sat. 1 have been on for some time: Knowledge communities have become a popular alternative to search engines.
The German media group Burda is taking over the knowledge platform Lycos IQ. The company is thus jumping on a bandwagon that Holtzbrinck and Prosieben Sat. 1 have been on for some time: Knowledge communities have become a popular alternative to search engines.
Burda sees the portal as a good addition to its editorial offering. Holtzbrinck and Prosieben Sat.1 have already had their own question and answer pages for some time. "Lycos IQ provides us with an exciting technology and a very active community. We will supplement the offering with the knowledge of our editorial teams and further develop the portal," Philipp Welte told the German industry service Meedia. For the publishing director, the takeover is part of his so-called "change program". According to Welte, the aim is to guide the publishing division safely through the recession and to align it towards a convergent future despite the revenue crisis.
Instead of simply entering a search term as with Google, users ask Lycos IQ complete questions and receive direct answers. Instead of the barely comprehensible hit lists of conventional search engines, Lycos IQ relies on the expertise and knowledge of people from the community, as Burda Verlag describes its new acquisition in a press release on Wednesday.
The market leader in the question and answer segment is the Hamburg-based website Wer-weis-was.de. According to IVW, the ProsiebenSat.1 subsidiary achieved 28 million clicks and 16 million visits. The Holtzbrinck investment Gute-Frage.net achieved 32 million page impressions in March but only 14 million visits. According to Lycos IQ, it currently has 750,000 users.
Burda sees the portal as a good addition to its editorial offering. Holtzbrinck and Prosieben Sat.1 have already had their own question and answer pages for some time. "Lycos IQ provides us with an exciting technology and a very active community. We will supplement the offering with the knowledge of our editorial teams and further develop the portal," Philipp Welte told the German industry service Meedia. For the publishing director, the takeover is part of his so-called "change program". According to Welte, the aim is to guide the publishing division safely through the recession and to align it towards a convergent future despite the revenue crisis.
Instead of simply entering a search term as with Google, users ask Lycos IQ complete questions and receive direct answers. Instead of the barely comprehensible hit lists of conventional search engines, Lycos IQ relies on the expertise and knowledge of people from the community, as Burda Verlag describes its new acquisition in a press release on Wednesday.
The market leader in the question and answer segment is the Hamburg-based website Wer-weis-was.de. According to IVW, the ProsiebenSat.1 subsidiary achieved 28 million clicks and 16 million visits. The Holtzbrinck investment Gute-Frage.net achieved 32 million page impressions in March but only 14 million visits. According to Lycos IQ, it currently has 750,000 users.
